Houston-area lawmakers back expansion of offshore energy exploration

Texas lawmakers are crossing party lines to join other House members in pressing the Obama administration to open up additional offshore territory to production of oil and natural gas.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, and other members of the Houston-area congressional delegation have signed a letter with a total of 182 House members urging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to provide “new and expanded access to the Outer Continental Shelf.”
“Opening up these areas to study is critical in working toward establishing a stable and safe domestic energy supply,” Green said in a statement.

“By not exploring the possibility of opening new areas to energy production through 2017, we are stifling the resources we have to grow our economy.”

The lawmakers’ letter said restrictions had kept more than three-quarters of the OCS “off limits to exploration and production activities for more than 30 years.”

The House members said that waiting until 2017 was not an option.

The Interior Department five year plan currently would not open new areas for assessment and leave exploration and development activities “focused in the same places where we have been looking for a generation,” the lawmakers wrote.

“We continue to believe the five-year leasing plan should allow for the consideration of expanding into new areas, such as offshore Virginia, as envisioned when the moratoria were lifted,” lawmakers wrote.